F1 boss refuses to settle with German bank over undervaluation allegations

Bernie Ecclestone is refusing to settle with a German bank that is preparing to sue him for allegedly undervaluing Formula One, his lawyer says. The dispute surrounds the sale of a controlling stake in F1 by state-owned lender BayernLB to the private equity firm CVC for $828m (£500m) in 2006.

Last year Mr Ecclestone was charged in Germany with paying a $44m bribe to steer the sale to CVC and earlier this month he paid a settlement of $100m to prosecutors to end the case.

BayernLB claims it lost out as higher bidders would have come forward if Mr Ecclestone had not engineered the sale to CVC. He recently offered the bank $25m to settle its claim against him but the settlement was rebuffed.

A BayernLB spokesman says the bank wants a similar sum to the amount received by the prosecutors but Mr Ecclestone’s lawyer, Sven Thomas, has revealed that he doesn’t intend to boost the offer.

Mr Thomas said: “We are not prepared to make a new offer. BayernLB have rejected the offer, as expected. At the moment we don’t do anything. We wait to see what they are going to do.